Thursday, 20 October 2016

Indonesian police kill man wielding machetes with ISIS symbol

Indonesian police kill man wielding machetes with ISIS symbol

Jakarta: Indonesian police shot dead a man
carrying knives, suspected pipe bombs and a symbol of the Islamic State
group after he launched a daylight assault on officers near Jakarta on
Thursday, an official said.

The man was shot three times as he stabbed wildly at officers on a
busy intersection in Tangerang, a satellite city outside the capital,
Jakarta police spokesman Awi Setiyono said.

Setiyono said the perpetrator threw two suspected pipe bombs at the
officers, but neither detonated, and displayed an IS symbol on a nearby
traffic pole during the frenzied attack.
"A man suddenly stuck an IS logo sticker on a traffic police post,
took a machete from his bag and blindly attacked our personnel," he
said.

The attacker believed to be a member of a local hardline group - was
also carrying a turban, along with knives and the suspected bombs,
Setiyono added.
The 21-year-old attacker later died from his wounds, the spokesman
said. He said police investigating the case had discovered that two of
the attacker's brothers were police officers in Tangerang. Three
officers were injured and taken to hospital.

Police have often been the target of attacks by extremists in
Indonesia, a country that has long struggled with Islamic militancy. In January, police officers were targeted by gunmen and suicide
bombers at a traffic post in central Jakarta. The IS-claimed attack left
four civilians and four militants dead, and injured several police
officers.
Police and military personnel have also been killed in clashes with
extremists in a remote part of Sulawesi, where for years a ragtag
militant group has been waging a conflict against security forces from
their jungle hideout.

Indonesia suffered significant attacks in the 2000s including the
2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people, mostly foreign
tourists.
A sustained crackdown weakened the most dangerous networks but IS has
proved a potent new rallying cry for Indonesia's radicals, stoking
fears that militants fighting with the group could seek to organise
attacks back home.